My Tango Diaries

Part I - A Very Long Diversion into the Embrace.. The tango embrace is my greatest source of pleasure from this dance. It is also my greatest frustration. Every leader is different, and so is every teacher. My most negative experience in a tango workshop was being told in front of an entire class that my embrace was (in much harsher terms than this) unacceptable . Even as I was being corrected and told to keep my hand on the leader's right shoulder blade, I felt like the corrected embrace was not very comfortable for me, especially as my partner at the time was shorter than I was. But I did what I was told. In that embrace I had the option of my elbow jutting out (creating a gap between the bend of my elbow and my leader's shoulder) or pulling my elbow in and down, thereby restricting the movement of my leader's right arm. I kept as light as I could, so that I wouldn't weigh his arm down, but I still felt a little more disconnected and like I was constantly lagging behi...

My brain is still too full. The festival, the lessons, old friends, new friends, stress, elation... Too much going on in the little gray cells to pull together many coherent thoughts. I danced Tuesday and Thursday nights, and just couldn't seem to pull together what I learned. In fact just following was challenging. All I could think about was that I should be remembering more of what I learned. Instead, everything seemed bottlenecked - too much information with nowhere to go. Maybe E. is right - I need more time for the things I learned to travel from my brain to my feet. Austin Spring Tango Festival The festival was wonderful, exciting, exhausting. I missed so much of it due to illness, but I find that I still got *enough* - enough of what I was looking for, enough of what I was needing... enough. I'm sad to have missed what's been called the "best milonga ever" on Sunday night at Esquina Tango. You can see video of it here . You can also see/hear the Austin Pia...

Normally I don't go for workshops that have steps in the title - classes like "The Twelve Ganchos of Christmas" or "Fifty Ways to Lead Your Rulo" tend to leave me cold. However, when instructors have a reputation of teaching steps and combinations that work well on a crowded milonga floor - I'm far more willing to give the class a shot. Georgetown Tango's Special Topics Workshop last month featured Milonguero Dip * & Back Volcadas for the social dance floor. Here are a couple of examples of the Milonguero Dip: Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt The Milonguero Dip (at 0:55, 0:59 and 1:03): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6YMpeJGg6U and at 0:38 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQvYQLCbZc Like some of the best stuff in tango, how the Milonguero Dip looks on the outside is nothing compared to how great it feels in the embrace. As the man collects his knees and twists he creates the slight drop which gives a "swoosh" (dip) feel to the resulti...